Life Update: Spring Break '06

Warning: Very few opinions will be expressed in the body of this post; you might as well skip it if that's all you come here for.

So, what have I been upto since I've been home over break?
Numerous things, would be the short answer.
As with any time I come home, I'm tasked with repairing/setting up any number of electronics that have become inoperable/acquired since I was last home. Today was less with the repairing and more with the setting up. Since winter break my parents picked up a digital music streamer (It has geek cred: it runs on a linux kernel). Setting it up required that I change the encryption protocol on my wireless network, either that or I run some Cat5 (I was very close to doing the second option). I had to change from the uber-easy WPA to the much less convenient WEP for my network and that took help from CS friends as well as some helpful folks on the Dell forums.
It's still a little shaky, likely due to Musicmatch being a mediocre piece of software, at best. It is, however, better (and already in-use) than the bundled software used to broadcast our music library over the network.
Next was a really cool dash-mounted GPS unit. I have a lot of respect for them as a company; it seems they give their engineers pretty much free reign as to features. The interface is totally (as in all of it can be skinned, not the valley girl "Totally") skinnable, evening allowing for buttons to be added/rearranged on menus. It is based on a 20GB harddrive. One of the coolest features is that the HDD is divided into two partitions. One is FAT and is accessible via USB (1.1, those lazy jerks). If I put mp3's (or ogg's!) on this partition, I can play them through a full-features 6-band equalizer, no less! It sounded pretty good going through a tape-deck adapter into the Bose sound system in our MDX. Good stuff. Anyway, I was tasked with figuring out how it works as well as how to get music into it. Neither were difficult tasks, especially the music.

So basically that's what I did Saturday and Sunday, right after I got back. On monday I went in search of some games, and was shocked by the results of the trip, as detailed in my previous post. I basically just played Rome: Total War and watched TV all day. It was a good day.

On tuesday I had an interview in the morning. Unfortunately I did not wake up when my alarm went off; I woke up when my PDA beeped a friendly 30-minute reminder. Now, it's not a 30 minute drive at the best of times; however the tail end of rush-hour isn't the best of times. That and the fact that I had to get dressed and whatnot. So not only did I not really wake up in time, but I got lost on the way. There was a sign that I didn't notice until the third pass up and down the street, after I called at 10:30 (my interview was at 10) to tell them that I was late, and after consulting a map. I wasn't very happy. But the tour/interview was good. I certainly think I could enjoy working there. An exchange from the interview:
[Robert (a project engineer) and I walk into Gerard's office after my tour of the factory floor]
Gerard: "Look, it's the boys of summer!"
Robert: "Whatever that means..."
Gerard: "I don't know, I just like how it sounds"
Note that Gerard is French or French-Canadian, so he has a very distinct accent.
Wednesday evening was Spamalot! It was fantastic! Wednesday was the debut of the touring company and they were amazing! There were even 2 CMU alum in it (Galahad and a member of the ensemble), I was proud to see that graduates from my university are able to rise to the occasion of appearing in broadway shows based on works by Monty Python. At the end Eric-Freaking-Idle came out to thank some people and tell some very Idle-y jokes:

"I'd like to thank one very special lady, without her support I would not be here tonight: my pharmacist"
and
"If you've enjoyed us half as much as as we've enjoyed us, then we've enjoyed us twice as much as you have"

Thursday was basically more video computer games and TV (several ST:DS9 episodes). Thursday evening I went with the 'rents to a CMU networking event in Natick. I ended up running into Charles and Christine, fellow MechE sophs and we had a nice time talking. I did end up talking to a few companies. Raytheon, Bose, and Demiurge were all there formally and they got my resume. Christine's father met her there and he actually works for Draper Labs, and he took a couple resumes too, including mine. All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend an evening.

Today (Friday) was hanging out with Miriam. I managed to get lost both going to her house, as well as coming home. Coming home was worse; I ended up on Speen St in Framingham and I deduced that I was not really heading some that much, so I pulled into a parking lot, checked a map and turned around, for my 3rd attempt at Rt 9 (I originally went the correct direction, then thought I was wrong and turned aroud then ended up in Framingham) and finally got home. I don't think I was ever quite so happy to see a sign for 95 South. I'm not a fan of getting lost.

Tomorrow is my last whole day at home, and I'll be spending the day at semi-finals of MHSDG 1-act festival in Brockton, supporting those crazy kids of the Sharon High School theatre troupe!

Break a leg, you guys! I'll see you in the morning.